This tropical smoothie cake with coconut buttercream is made from your favorite tropical smoothie ingredients. It is light, very moist, delicious, and full of flavors.
If you cannot go to the tropics for a vacation to enjoy the flavorful drinks and smoothies they serve, do not worry I will bring the tropics to you! How will I do that, by bringing you a tropical smoothie cake recipe with all the tropical flavors from pineapple, coconut, mango, papaya, and orange? Before we dive into the details of this recipe and the design, a bite of information about the tropical region and the various fruit grown there.
What is a Tropical Smoothie?
Tropical smoothie is made from fruits from the tropical region of the world. The smoothie can be a combination of any of these fruits including mangoes, pineapple, orange, pawpaw or papaya, coconut (milk or water), jack fruit, kiwi, banana, and many more. They are blended to make a refreshing, nutritious and creamy drink. Most fruit from the tropics are considered super foods.
The Tropical Region (A little geography).
The tropical region usually refers to the parts of the earth that is close to the equator and between the tropic of cancer in the northern hemisphere and the tropical of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere. These are made of countries found in South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. These countries usually have climates that have high temperatures all year round and lots of rain. This climate is good for growing different kinds of food crops, such banana, mango, coconut, pineapple, pawpaw, guava, star fruit, kiwi, passion fruit, cocoa, tea, and many more.
Ingredients Needed for Tropical Cake
Cake flour add structure to the cake and produce a soft crumb.
Baking powder makes the cake rise, and light.
Salt brings all the other taste together nicely.
Unsalted butter at room temperature.
Sugar adds sweetness to the cake.
Eggs add structure, flavor, color, and act as leavening agent to this cake.
Coconut milk adds a unique flavor to the cake.
Tropical smoothie (pineapple, papaya, mango, orange juice) makes the cake tasty and tender in texture.
Preparation Before Baking the Cake.
The initial step in baking any food is to read thoroughly through the recipe to familiarize yourself with the processes, ingredients, and tools needed. For more information on prep work, check out this post. Aside from reading the recipe, the other prep work to be done with this recipe include:
- Measuring all the ingredients.
- Prepare 3- 6×2 inches round cake pans with nonstick spray, oil, flour, and parchment paper, or try my homemade pan release.
- Bring butter, eggs, and coconut milk (if you have it in the fridge) from the refrigerator so that they can come to room temperature before using.
- Blend the tropical fruits and measure the quantity needed out.
- Preheat the oven at 350 F/ 180 C.
Helpful Tips for Baking the Best Cake.
- Always use cake flour for tender cakes and crumbs unless otherwise stated in the recipe.
- Flour should be sifted to get rid of any particles, lumps and help aerate the cake.
- Cake butter should not be over-mixed.
- Do not open the oven door when the cake is baking, you can use the oven light to check on the cake or when it passes ¾ of the baking time.
- Tools Needed for Baking and Decorating the Cake.
Round baking pan for baking the cakes in.
Hand mixer or stand mixer for creaming the cake mixture and whip up the coconut buttercream.
Mixing bowls to put ingredients in.
Piping tip and bag for piping designs on the cake.
Turntable is nice to have because they make icing cakes easy.
Cake cardboard circles and board to place cake on them.
Off set spatula for applying icing to the cake.
Cake scraper or bench scraper for smoothing the sides of the cake.
How to Make the Tropical Smoothie Cake
This tropical cake has a yellow cake as the foundation and includes in the cake are the tropical smoothie and coconut milk. The smoothie makes the cake very moist and gives it a refreshing taste. I started with a yellow cake, then added a fresh tropical fruit smoothie to the cake mixture. Always use fresh fruit for the smoothie for the cake to get the taste at its peak and not the fruit juice except for the fresh orange juice used for blending the rest of the fruit. I prefer to use coconut milk in the cake for added taste and the milk brings all the freshness of all the fruits together. Any dairy milk or milk from any nut will work but will affect the taste differently.
How to Make the coconut buttercream
This buttercream icing is delicious, bursting with coconut flavors. I used my buttercream cream recipe as the base for this recipe and included coconut milk and toasted coconut extract from the Wilton flavor system set. You can use vanilla extract if that is the only flavor you have.
More about the Tropical Cake Design
Cool the cakes completely or chill the cakes ahead of time for easy decorating. Fill the cake was some of the coconut buttercream, stack the cake, crumb coat, and chill for about 30 minutes. After filling the cakes, divide the remaining buttercream icing into three and colored them in pink, yellow, and blue pastel colors. If you want to achieve this pastel color, then use just a tiny bit of food color and adjust the color as you go. Something to keep in mind is that the more the color sits, the more the color will become intense. Wilton piping tip number 789 was used for piping the strips onto the cake.
first layer 
second layer 
the final layer 
crumb coated and chilled
How to Make Dried Pineapple Flowers
For these dried pineapple flowers, use a medium-sized fresh pineapple. Peel the other covering of the pineapple and discard, then sliced the fruit into a thin disc with a sharp knife. Arranged the sliced pineapple on a baking sheet and bake at 300 F for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, bring the pineapple out of the oven and flip them over, and put them back into the oven to bake. Check on the pineapple after another 30 minutes, this time the pineapple should be hydrated but not completely dry. Then move them from the baking sheet to a muffin tin to dry completely and use as desired.
If you have any questions about this recipe, I will love to hear about them in the comment section below. Did you make this recipe? Take a photo and tag me #theduchezkitchen- I love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook? Find me @theduchezkitchen.
Thanks for reading. As always, know that God loves you and stay blessed!
Happy baking and decorating!!
Linda!
Tropical Smoothie Cake with Coconut Buttercream
This tropical smoothie cake with coconut buttercream is made from your favorite tropical smoothie ingredients. It is light, very moist, delicious, and full of flavors.Equipment
- Hand mixer or Stand mixer
- Baking pans
- Cake scraper
Ingredients
Tropical Smoothie Cake
- 3½ cups cake flour sifted
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1¾ cups sugar
- 4 large eggs at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vaniila extract
- ½ cup coconut milk
- ¾ cup blended tropical smoothie (pineapple-½cup, papaya-½cup, mango-½cup, fresh orange juice-¼cup)
Coconut Buttercream
- 1½ cups unsalted butter (soften)
- 4½ cups powdered sugar
- 4 tablespoon / ¼ cup coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon coconut extract
Decorations
- 4 petal dried pineapple flowers
Instructions
For the Tropical Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F or 180 °C. Prepare three 6×2" round cake pan or two 8" round cake pan with non-stick spray and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, sift the cake flour into the bowl. Add baking powder and salt to the flour and whisk together. Set aside.
- In a large bowl with a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and mix well.
- Add the flour, milk, and fruit smoothie to the creamed mixture by alternating them. Mix well after each addition and divide the cake batter among the three prepared cake pans.Bake the cakes in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the cake and comes out clean and dry. Bring cake out of the oven and allow to cool in the baking pan for 10 minutes before transferring the cake to the cooling rack to cool completely.
For the Coconut Buttercream
- In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a medium bowl with a hand mixer, cream butter on a medium-high speed until well mixed and smooth. Slowly add the powdered sugar one cup at a time, then add the coconut milk and coconut extract and beat until well mixed. Beat the frosting on medium-high for about 3 minutes until light, fluffy and smooth.
Assembly the Cake
- To assemble the cake, place a nonslip mat on a turntable and then tape a 6 inches cake cardboard circle to an 8 inches cardboard circle (the 8 inches cardboard helps to transport the cake to the fridge and back easily) and place the cake board on the turntable.
- Apply a small amount of buttercream to the center of the 6 inches cake board. Place the first cake layer on the board and add enough buttercream onto the cake and smooth the buttercream as level as you can get (check the visual guideline above).
- Place another cake layer on top of the frosting and repeat the process until all the cakes are stacked. The last cake layer should be placed flat side up that is the bottom should face up. Press down on the stacked cakes lightly to help the cakes stick to the icing.
- Crumb coat the cake with a thin layer of buttercream and smooth it with a cake scraper. Refrigerate the cake for about 30 minutes or 10 minutes in the freezer. Divide the remaining buttercream into three part and color as desire. Fill three big piping bag fitted with Wilton piping tip 789 with the colored buttercream. Pipe the stripe while alternating the colors all around the cake until the whole cake is covered.
- Decorate with dried pineapple flowers, serve and enjoy.
Nutrition
Calories: 300kcalTried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
What if someone is allergic to coconut? Do you have a suggestion for a replacement?
Hi Maria,
If you are allergic to coconut, the best alternative will be almond milk or any nut milk. Whole milk will work too.